Potholes: What Labour should do to fix local roads
23/07/2024 Campaigner Mark Morrell, known in the media as Mr Pothole, sets out what the new government should do to fix the local road system. |
Government failing to track pothole funding, auditors warn
23/07/2024 The Government does not know whether the funding it allocates to councils to fix the pothole-riddled road system is being used effectively, auditors warn. |
Wales publishes 20mph guidance
17/07/2024 The Welsh Government has published guidance on reverting speed limits in built-up areas to 30mph, less than a year after introducing a default 20mph limit. |
£1m boost to road patching in East Sussex
16/07/2024 East Sussex County Council has committed an extra £1m to road patching, but acknowledged it would cost more than £300m to bring all its roads up to scratch. |
Highway leaders warn of ‘roadwork gridlock’
15/07/2024 Nearly two thirds of local highway authority (LHA) leaders believe that we are headed for a road and street work crisis by 2030, new research has revealed. |
App data 'suggests 11.5 million potholes in UK'
02/07/2024 There are five times more defects on British roads than previous estimates, according to data from a dashboard app that uses AI technology. |
New road marking contract for Notts highways
28/06/2024 Road marking and maintenance firm WJ Group has won a new contract with Via East Midlands to deliver road marking services across Nottinghamshire. |
Nine tonnes of bird poo removed from Tyne Bridge
27/06/2024 A multi-million pound revamp of the Tyne Bridge has seen nine tonnes of pigeon poo removed from the Grade II-listed structure. |
TfL lets the wildflowers bloom
25/06/2024 Transport for London (TfL) says it has delivered its pledge of doubling wildflower verges in roadside areas to encourage biodiversity. |
Oxford air pollution falls faster than across UK
25/06/2024 Air pollution in Oxford dropped quicker than the national average during the first full year of the city’s zero emission zone (ZEZ), but levels of toxic nitrogen dioxide (NO2) at two sites breached the legally binding limit. |
Lib Dem £300m pothole pledge ‘won’t scratch the surface’
20/06/2024 The Liberal Democrats have committed to spending £300m over the next Parliament to fill 1.2 million potholes a year. |
Lack of funding hindering road safety, councils say
19/06/2024 Limited funding and inadequate data are major barriers to road safety planning and measurement, local authorities have reported. |
Requests for driver details rise
18/06/2024 Councils and parking companies are increasingly requesting details about a car’s registered keeper, which allows them to fine drivers, according to a car sales firm. |
Council has ‘no plans’ to cancel fines despite error
17/06/2024 Fines issued to drivers for using bus lanes will not be revoked despite containing a mistake, Southwark Council has said. |
Labour pledges to fix one million potholes
12/06/2024 One million potholes a year will be fixed if Labour are elected on 4 July, the shadow transport secretary says. |
Council borrows to spend £10m more on roads
11/06/2024 West Northamptonshire Council plans to borrow up to £10m to spend on schemes aimed at improving roads across the district. |
Tories announce plan to scrap outer London Ulez
10/06/2024 The Conservatives plan to scrap outer London's Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) if re-elected, Transport Sectary Mark Harper revealed over the weekend. |
Half of cyclists say road conditions are dangerous
10/06/2024 A major local government insurer has warned that months of rain may have caused ‘some of the worst ever road conditions’. |
Councils bring in over £127m in bus lane fines
07/06/2024 Local authorities in England brought in a total of £127.3m in revenue from bus lane fines in 2022/23, according to the AA. |
Council rejects film studio plans despite Hollywood backing
31/05/2024 Buckinghamshire councillors have rejected permission for a proposed film studio despite the plans receiving the backing of Hollywood royalty. |
Child pedestrian casualties on England’s roads up 16%
31/05/2024 Nearly 50 child pedestrians are killed or injured on England’s roads every day, a new study has revealed. |
RAC: Councils take ‘wildly differing approaches’ to potholes
23/05/2024 Local authorities take very different approaches to deciding whether potholes get fixed, which means many go unrepaired, say RAC and Channel 4’s Dispatches. |
Diplomats owe £143.5m in congestion charges
21/05/2024 Embassies in London have amassed debt worth more than £143.5m in unpaid congestion charges since the scheme was introduced in 2003. |
Auditors add to council biometric warnings
20/05/2024 A spending watchdog has echoed councils’ concerns that biometric entry requirements at UK ports could lead to freight delays and gridlock on major roads. |
Council suspends meeting amid disorder over 20mph ‘frustration’
17/05/2024 A Ramsey Town Council meeting was suspended and a man was asked to leave after the agenda descended into a heated discussion about a 20mph traffic zone. |
Councils given extra time on signals plans
15/05/2024 The Government has given English highway authorities an extra month to set out what they plan to do with their share of £50m for upgrading traffic signals. |
Devon CC to invest £12m in pothole and drainage works
13/05/2024 A new multi-million-pound investment in repairing potholes and boosting road drainage has been agreed by Devon council members. |
Council invests emergency £5m to tackle ‘potholes menace’
13/05/2024 Lancashire County Council has announced an emergency £5m to deal with the ‘potholes menace’ ruining the county’s roads. |
Potholes cost economy over £14bn a year
29/04/2024 The poor state of England’s pothole-riddled road system is costing £14.4bn a year in economic damage, new research has revealed. |
RAC: Drivers ‘dodged the pothole bullet’
23/04/2024 Vehicle owners ‘dodged the pothole bullet’ in what is normally the worst three months of the year for breakdowns, according to the RAC. |
A40 park and ride site built – with no road to access it
23/04/2024 Oxfordshire County Council has almost finished work on an 850-space park and ride site, but delays mean it will not be in use for years. |
Wales to ‘correct’ guidance on 20mph speed limits
22/04/2024 The Welsh Government will change its guidance on 20mph speed limits, the transport minister has said. |
Auditors warned over relief road 'iceberg'
19/04/2024 A councillor has asked Shropshire Council’s external auditor to investigate concerns the North West Relief Road will 'completely bankrupt the council'. |
How the government can support road improvements
16/04/2024 Jake Michael, RS Bonds, sets out a number of ways the Government can help local authorities improve the condition of the local road network. |
Toad rescuers help record number of amphibians cross road
11/04/2024 Toad rescuers in Bath have broken a new record by helping the highest number of amphibians cross the road in 14 years. |
Councils publish pothole battle plans
10/04/2024 Local authorities have published which pothole-stricken roads will benefit from the first tranche of an over £8bn package of reallocated HS2 funding. |
Council responds to ‘Daventry Banksie’ pothole complaints
08/04/2024 West Northamptonshire Council has responded to an anti-pothole protester with a computer-generated image of a roadside sign laden with song titles. |
Oxfordshire signs first scheme under new 'brownfield fund'
28/03/2024 Oxfordshire County Council is the first local authority to secure project funding through Homes England's Brownfield, Infrastructure and Land (BIL) Fund. |
Norfolk caught in bitter battle over bats
27/03/2024 A council leader has launched an attack on Natural England after the environment watchdog effectively blocked a £274m road scheme due to its impact on bats. |
DfT hands councils £38m for road safety
22/03/2024 Ministers have announced £38.3m to improve the safety of 17 high risk local roads in England. |
ALARM: Pothole-riddled roads need £16bn investment
19/03/2024 The condition of roads in England and Wales has continued to decline despite councils spending £143.5m filling in two million potholes this financial year. |
‘Toxic’ 15-minute city phrase cut from Oxford local plan
08/03/2024 Oxford City Council has removed mention of ‘15-minute cities’ from its local plan, claiming the concept has become ‘too toxic and incendiary’, The Times has reported. |
Pothole-preventing robot passes first road test
08/03/2024 An autonomous robot designed to detect and fill cracks on roads has passed its first test outside of a laboratory. |
Lambeth scraps LTN
08/03/2024 A low traffic neighbourhood (LTN) trial in Streatham has been suspended with immediate effect following disruption to bus services and ahead of construction work. |
Work begins on Oxford traffic filters
26/02/2024 Work has started on a number of streets in Oxford to prepare the way for six traffic filters as part of a trial aimed at reducing traffic in the city. |
UltraCrete improving road safety near Shrewsbury
26/02/2024 UltraCrete has joined forces with Highway Workforce to repair and replace a failed carriageway frame and cover on a busy road near Shrewsbury. |
Council road maintenance reaches five-year low
26/02/2024 Road maintenance by local authorities in England has dropped by 45% over five years, the RAC has revealed. |
Plymouth council leader applauds city’s ‘war-time spirit’
26/02/2024 The leader of Plymouth council has applauded the ‘war-time spirit’ of the city’s residents after a Second World War bomb was safely detonated at sea. |
Street Scar: why the utilities firms ruin our streets and how to stop it
19/02/2024 Nicholas Boys Smith, founder and chairman of Create Streets, explains what needs to be done to help local authorities prevent 'street scarring'. |
February most dangerous month for ‘pothole prangs’
13/02/2024 Motorists have been warned that February is the most dangerous month for ‘pothole prangs’ as research reveals a dramatic rise in pothole damage claims. |
Council sued after cyclist hits pothole
06/02/2024 Staffordshire County Council is facing legal action after the triathlete Paul Hughes hit a pothole while cycling breaking multiple bones and damaging a lung. |
Councils 'have tightened pothole payout criteria'
05/02/2024 Compensation paid by councils for damage caused by potholes has fallen by more than a half, with some giving out ‘next to nothing’. |
Hants seeks to avoid cost risk on £125m scheme
02/02/2024 Hampshire County Council is facing a funding gap on the A326 North Waterside Improvements scheme, if cost increases go beyond a current estimate of £125m. |
Second council U-turns on pesticide use
01/02/2024 Cambridgeshire County Council has agreed to reintroduce chemical weed killer, following Brighton's recent call to recommence pesticide treatment. |
TfL hands boroughs another £80m for streets
31/01/2024 Transport for London (TfL) has announced up to £80.4m for boroughs to improve public transport, make walking and cycling safer and create new school streets. |
Newcastle CAZ generates £2.4m
31/01/2024 The Newcastle and Gateshead Clean Air Zone (CAZ) brought in more than £2.4m in its first 11 months of operation. |
Westminster revamps emissions-based parking charges
30/01/2024 Westminster City Council will revamp its parking schemes so that residents and visitors are charged based on their vehicles’ tailpipe emissions. |
‘10,000 years of Cornish history’ brought to light
29/01/2024 Archaeologists have excavated more evidence of Cornwall’s ancient past while carrying out improvement works on the A30, the local council has revealed. |
Councils get new steer on motorbikes in bus lanes
23/01/2024 The Department for Transport (DfT) has updated its guidance for councils on allowing motorcycles to use bus lanes. |
‘Staggering’ two million vehicles damaged by potholes last year
12/01/2024 The AA attended more than 600,000 incidents involving vehicles damaged by potholes last year, new figures released on National Pothole Day today reveal. |
First-of-kind tool links road casualties and deprivation
12/01/2024 Transport for London has launched a dashboard which shows how deprivation is linked to higher levels of death and injury on the capital’s roads. |
Velocity’s low carbon interventions help prevent and repair potholes
11/01/2024 With National Pothole Day upon us once more, highways maintenance specialists Velocity discuss their innovative spray-injection patching technique. |
Potholes: the drivers’ biggest pain
10/01/2024 Jack Cousens, head of roads policy at the AA, discusses the scourge of potholes and what councils should do to fix the local road network. |
Pothole claims up record 40%, insurer reveals
09/01/2024 The number of pothole-related claims increased by a record 40% last year when compared to 2022, the latest data from Admiral Car Insurance has revealed. |
Council’s parking fine income up 50%
08/01/2024 Buckinghamshire Council brought in £1.4m from parking fines in 2023, a 50% increase compared to 2022. |
London boroughs’ share of HS2 pothole fund confirmed
20/12/2023 Allocations for a £235m funding pot aimed at fixing London’s pothole-strewn roads have been confirmed by the Government. |
Mayor Burnham criticises fee-paying clean air zone
14/12/2023 Public investment in buses and taxis will improve air quality in Greater Manchester faster than a fee-paying clean air zone (CAZ), Mayor Andy Burnham says. |
Live Labs Centre of Excellence open for business
08/12/2023 An £8.5m Government-funded research project into building and maintaining roads with low-carbon and recycled materials now open for submissions. |
Government axes Brum's £2.7bn PFI deal in shock 'betrayal'
01/12/2023 Birmingham City Council's leader has accused the Government of 'betrayal' by axing the authority's £2.7bn highways Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract, in a move that could lose the authority more than £500m of roads investment. |
Edinburgh to spend £55m to make fleet LEZ compliant
28/11/2023 Edinburgh City Council is set to spend £55m replacing obsolete vehicles and ensuring its fleet complies with new environmental rules. |
‘Worst October in history’ for pothole breakdowns
27/11/2023 October this year was the worst on record for pothole-related breakdowns, according to the AA Pothole Index. |
AI robot could help address ‘pothole crisis’
23/11/2023 A self-guiding robot capable of identifying and repairing potholes using artificial intelligence (AI) technology could help tackle the blight of potholes. |
Councils failing to fix potholes could face funding cuts
22/11/2023 Local authorities who fail to hit road resurfacing targets could see their funding withheld from a national pothole fund. |
£8bn of HS2 savings to be spent on ending pothole ‘blight’
17/11/2023 Transport secretary Mark Harper has confirmed the allocations of an £8.3bn plan to resurface England’s pothole-marked roads, set out in the wake of HS2 cuts. |
RAC sees record third quarter 'pothole call-outs'
10/11/2023 The RAC has dealt with the highest number of pothole-related breakdowns seen in any third quarter since its records began in 2006. |
Nine on 'flexible' Barnet highways framework
08/11/2023 Barnet Council has appointed nine contractors to a new four-year highway maintenance framework worth around £75m. |
Councils respond to King’s Speech
08/11/2023 The Local Government Association (LGA) has responded to proposed legislation announced yesterday in the King’s Speech. |
London borough trials pothole repair machine
06/11/2023 Redbridge Council is trialling a spray injection patching machine to fix potholes across the borough. |
Major road network set for £2.6bn second funding round
03/11/2023 A promised £2.6bn for local road upgrades will be in the form of a second round of major road network (MRN) funding, it has emerged. |
DfT teases more detail on multi-billion roads spending plans
03/11/2023 The Department for Transport has given fresh detail on the £8.3bn of ‘additional’ local highway maintenance funding due to HS2 cuts. |
Glasgow clean air bid gets all clear
31/10/2023 A legal challenge to Glasgow's Low Emission Zone (LEZ) from a local business has failed. |
Khan puts £10m into street works co-ordination
31/10/2023 London mayor Sadiq Khan has announced a further £10m for his Infrastructure Coordination Service (ICS), which aims to reduce the delays caused by street works in the capital. |
Costain named strategic partner on Bradford's £250m investment plan
30/10/2023 Costain has been reappointed as Bradford Council’s strategic delivery partner, in a contract worth up to £5m with an initial run of two years. |
AA seeks new pothole cash as councils face cut
30/10/2023 Councils ‘desperately need’ more highway maintenance funding to address the deteriorating condition of local roads, the AA has said after its worst September fixing ‘pothole-related’ breakdowns for five years. |
Oflog moves to expand remit
30/10/2023 The new Office for Local Government (Oflog) watchdog has proposed to widen its scope to five new service areas. |
Councils await clarity on top-up cash for major schemes
27/10/2023 A number of major local road schemes are hanging in the balance while authorities are left unsure if ministers will stump up the extra cash pledged in the wake of cutting back HS2. |
Air quality rules continue to trouble Bath area
27/10/2023 A council that had ‘officially passed a government milestone’ for cleaning up toxic air breached legal limits as traffic returned after the pandemic, according to recent data. |
Concern over state of roads hits record high
20/10/2023 Half of drivers say the state of local roads is their top motoring concern – a record high since the RAC began asking for motorists' views on road conditions. |
Controversial Oxford LTNs made permanent
19/10/2023 Three low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) in Oxford are to become permanent, Oxfordshire County Council’s cabinet decided this week. |
Boroughs to get opt out from future ULEZ-style schemes
13/10/2023 Legislation that will enable London boroughs to opt out of future road charging schemes has been welcomed as ‘an enormous step forwards in local democracy’. |
Councils' parking revenue approaches £1bn
13/10/2023 The income councils raked in from parking surged to almost £1bn in the last financial year. |
£1.3bn local road upgrade pledge unravels
12/10/2023 Doubts have arisen over the Government's pledge that it will deliver 70 local authority road schemes |
Exclusive: DfT drops self-assessment process
10/10/2023 The Department for Transport has ended the highways self-assessment process, removing the incentive element of local maintenance capital funding. |
15 minute cities 'don't exist'
09/10/2023 Civil servants are battling to explain to ministers that concepts like ’15-minute cities’, said to restrict people’s ability to shop, ‘don’t really exist'. |
Sinkhole swallows up bin lorry
06/10/2023 An investigation has been launched after a refuse collection vehicle in North Wales was partially swallowed up by a sinkhole. |
No dates for HS2 pothole cash
05/10/2023 The Government has admitted it does not have a timescale for the billions of pounds for road resurfacing that it announced after the decision to curtail HS2. |
Place directors under ‘immense pressure’ publish strategic objectives
03/10/2023 Place directors have called for action on planning, infrastructure and the environment, including a financial regime enabling councils to build more affordable and ‘climate-ready’ homes. |
Road conditions add flood risk to pothole ‘crisis’
27/09/2023 English councils received hundreds of compensation claims for flood damage in recent years as they struggled to maintain roadside drainage, according to study. |
Tower Hamlets to remove LTN road closures
21/09/2023 Tower Hamlets has decided to remove its low traffic neighbourhood (LTN) road closures despite the majority of affected residents supporting the measures. |
Councils cut back on road resurfacing
13/09/2023 The number of miles of road in England resurfaced or given life-extending treatment is at its lowest point in five years, according to an analysis of government data by the RAC. |
Shell is helping power the journey towards a circular paving industry with Shell Bitumen LT R, a new product for roads that uses plastics destined for landfill as part of the additives to make the bitumen.
Effective Energy Group is now offering its support to the 40 Local Authorities who have received a share of the £430m to deliver their projects on the ground by surveying properties and installing measures.
Dougie Belmore explains how one of the main interfaces between you and Bacs is about to change.